Abstract

Scanning force microscopy (AFM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy(HRTEM) have been used to investigate the complex topography evolution of Si surfaces during low-energy ion beamerosion. Depending on ion-beam parameters, a variety of different topographies can develop on the surface. At oblique ion-incidence angles, nanodots are formed for ion energies upon sample rotation. Properly chosen parameters of the broad-beam ion source result in dots possessing a very high degree of lateral ordering with a mean dot size . Both, degree of ordering and size homogeneity of these nanostructures increases with erosion time leading to the most ordered self-organized patterns on Si surfaces reported thus far.

Received 07 September 2004Accepted 08 June 2005Published online 13 July 2005

Acknowledgments:

The authors would like to thank Professor U. Gösele for granting continuous access to the TEM facilities at the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics in Halle, Germany. In particular, the authors thank H. Neumann and Dr. M. Tartz for many stimulating discussions about broad beam ion sources. This work is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.